Carl Wilson declared victory Tuesday night in the closely watched special election for Manhattan’s District 3 City Council seat, taking a commanding lead over Lindsey Boylan, who was endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a race that became a test of the mayor’s political influence.
Unofficial results from the city Board of Elections showed Wilson with 43.08% of the vote, with 6,129 ballots cast in his favor and 99% of scanners reporting. Boylan trailed with 25.66%, or 3,650 votes.
Although no candidate cleared the 50% threshold required to avoid ranked-choice tabulation, Boylan conceded Tuesday night, effectively cementing Wilson’s victory.
“This is just the beginning. Winning an election is not the finish line, it is the starting point,” Wilson told supporters gathered at VERS bar in Hell’s Kitchen. “Now the real work begins, the work of showing up every single day, the work of listening, especially when it’s difficult, the work of building coalitions and delivering real results for our communities.”
Wilson, a longtime West Side organizer and former chief of staff to then-Council Member Erik Bottcher, will represent Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and the West Village, filling the seat of his former boss.
“This victory is for the workers, the artists, the tenants, the small business owners and the families who call this district home,” Wilson said. “They deserve a city that works for them.”
He said the campaign was about building “a district where working people can afford to stay, where artists and creatives aren’t pushed out but lifted up,” and where streets are safe, subways are reliable and neighborhoods are “vibrant and inclusive.”
State Sen. Erik Bottcher said Wilson’s campaign had proven “that when you put in the work, when you serve the people year after year, when you lead with integrity and heart, and when you organize block by block, people respond.”
The contest had become a proxy fight between Mamdani’s progressive coalition and a broader network of Manhattan elected officials, labor organizations and neighborhood leaders supporting Wilson, including Council Speaker Julie Menin. Mamdani endorsed Boylan as early voting got underway.
Wilson campaigned on affordability, transit, quality-of-life issues, the arts and LGBTQ representation. His campaign argued that District 3, home to Stonewall and some of the city’s best-known LGBTQ neighborhoods, should continue its decades-long history of LGBTQ representation on the Council.
Speaker Menin said she was “thrilled” with Tuesday’s outcome, saying she endorsed Wilson in January as she was “confident that this community would elect him.”
“Carl has been an artist. He was an actor. He waited tables in this community. He’s worked as a chief of staff [to Bottcher]. He knows this community up and down. He founded Hell’s Kitchen Democrats. I felt very confident that he was going to win this race, and I’ve worked really hard to elect him,” said Speaker Menin.
His victory could carry immediate consequences at City Hall. He has said he would support overriding Mamdani’s veto of a Council bill requiring the NYPD to establish protest buffer zones at educational facilities. Boylan said she would oppose an override.
The bill has become a flashpoint between free-speech advocates and supporters who say it is needed to protect students from harassment near schools and campuses.
Speaker Menin declined Tuesday night to say whether Wilson’s apparent victory improved the Council’s chances of overriding the veto, saying talks with members would soon get underway.
Wilson also brushed off the idea of being Menin’s candidate in a proxy war with Mamdani telling amNewYork, “I’m Carl Wilson’s candidate, and I am excited to get to work to represent the constituents of this district who I’ve had the pleasure of serving, and I can’t wait to build on that work.”
Wilson entered Election Day with a financial edge and additional outside support, including spending from Carpenters for Progress and United for NYC’s Future, committees affiliated with the carpenters and teachers unions. The race drew heightened attention in its final days after a late injection of outside spending from a super PAC backing Wilson.
His donor base also included support from his home state. Wilson grew up in Bowie, Maryland, before moving to New York City in 2009 to attend NYU, where he studied acting and pursued musical theater. Earlier campaign filings showed $4,940 from Bowie donors and another $3,975 from elsewhere in Maryland, for a total of $8,915.
Wilson has often tied that biography to his political pitch, saying his path from actor to organizer began after the 2016 presidential election. He became a founding member of the Hell’s Kitchen Democrats, later worked in Corey Johnson’s Council office as a community liaison, and returned to City Hall as Bottcher’s chief of staff.
Wilson’s parents, Pamela and Michael Wilson, traveled from Maryland for election night. Pamela Wilson told amNewYork the moment was “overwhelming” but exciting, adding that her son’s path from acting to politics made sense to his family.
“He definitely has something special,” she said. “We’ve known it for a long time.”
Pamela Wilson also noted that public service runs in the family: her husband is a retired public servant, while she works as chief housing developer for affordable housing in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She recalled that Carl showed early signs of political interest, running for student government president in third grade and later interviewing Madeleine Albright when she visited his school.
“The signs were there early on,” she said. “We’re very proud.”
Meanwhile, in Chelsea on Tuesday night, Boylan called Wilson from her party to concede the race.
“The momentum and energy behind this campaign has been incredible, and speaks to the resonance of our progressive proposals,” she said in a statement. “The movement that the Mayor brought to this city lives on and we are carrying that energy forward.”
“Regardless of the outcome tonight, that vision persists,” she added.
